Google’s Android 10 adopted faster than any earlier version
Google’s latest update to its Android operating system was adopted faster than any other previously release, reaching 100m devices in five months.
This was 28 per cent faster than Google’s last release Android Pie, it said this week.
After 300 days, Android 10 had been downloaded on 400m devices — approximately 16 per cent of Google’s total potential user base.
This is much slower than Apple’s iOS install rate of around 90 per cent, largely because Google’s Android system is open-source and is utilised by many different smartphone manufacturers.
Google said the Android 10 adoption rate had increased thanks to updates made to its compliance software. It also launched a developer preview programme in 2018 to help its major technology partners adapt to the new updates.
“We’re excited by the increased adoption of Android and are grateful for the close collaborations with our chipset and [equipment] partners to deploy updates earlier,” said a team of Google engineers in a blog post.
“We continue to work on a number of enhancements in the platform and infrastructure to make it easier for developers and users to benefit from the latest versions of Android.”
The engineers said some of the main issues facing Android 10 revolve around the time it takes for device manufacturers to fit the latest update to their own technology, adding in patches to work with a phone’s camera or interface.
These customisations can often mean lengthy delays between the time at which the update is released, and when users can download it onto their phone.
Apple, on the other hand, can directly channel its software updates to users because it only provides iOS to its own devices.